Chapter 1: The Gamer Narumi

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“Nee-chaaaaan! So unfaaaaaaair!”

“That’s how it goes, shortie.”

“Toru, there’s no use complaining to your older sister. I don’t care if a new game is out, you are going to school!”

Yare yare, even though my little brother just started high school, he’s throwing a tantrum over not being able to skip school to play a game as soon as it goes live.

“But Nee-chan’s going to get to play it first! It’s not fair!”

“Narumi doesn’t have class today, so it can’t be helped.”

... Well technically I have a class second hour, but the professor’s on a trip.

Even if the students can slack off in college, it doesn’t mean the professor should as well, my goodness.

Little brother, even if you don’t go to school, the game doesn’t even go live until lunchtime. And what’s so great about connecting to the game as soon as it goes live? The server will probably be so flooded you’ll get kicked off every 5 minutes just trying to make an account.

Everyone’s been looking forward to this game, so they’ll probably have to throttle the amount of people waiting to create their avatars.

Haaah... I never look forward to opening day rush ...

Ah, I know.

“If you hurry back after school, I’ll wait for you to come home before I play. Just waiting to log-in could take several hours if you’re unlucky, so it’s not like it will be much different, right?”

“... Got it...”

Good grief, even though I’m usually just his backup for when his friends aren’t playing ... this spoiled brat. It can’t be helped, our entire family spoils him and I’m not exactly guiltless here.

After she finally got the shortie sent off, my mother turned in my direction.

“To think both of my children would be so into games...”

“Sorry, mama, we’ve stepped into the world of no return, but don’t worry, since a mother’s smile is still something precious to us, we won’t step onto the wrong path and become useless members of society.”

I stepped past her and gave her a kiss on the cheek before stepping down into the entryway and squeezing on my shoes.

“Mou, who on earth taught you to act like a foreigner! Don’t tell me you’re kissing people right and left!”

Mom had turned bright red with a hand to her cheek, looking scandalized, and I laugh and wave lightly at her as I open the front door.

“I’m going to meet with Chie now. Ah, I won’t need lunch.”

“Ok, then take care.”

“I’m off.”

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Even before I knew I wasn’t going to play OriginStory until after the shortie got home from school, I had made plans with my friend Chie Mikazuki, since there was something urgent she wanted to talk to me about.

That topic is ...

“He broke up with me in the worst way possible, I get it, so that’s why he’d be all nervous and everything, but before I said anything, he says, ‘Look, you need to stop being crazy, it’s over, so don’t call me again,’ and hangs up!? And then deleted his text account so I can’t even text him to tell him why I actually called him!? Fine! I’ll just keep all your DVDs and bluerays! No, I’ll sell them!”

Fuuu...

“Mou, Narumi, are you even listening to me? Stop smoking and pay attention!”

“Of course I’m listening; I’m just not surprised at all that he did that. How should I say it ... he’s the kind that likes to pretend he’s a nice guy, so the girl’s always wrong, right? He always cut you off when you guys are talking, or talks over you when you’re with other people ... isn’t a given that I’ll be happy our cute Chie-chan isn’t seeing someone who doesn’t appreciate how charming she is?”

I take another drag on my cigarette. Even though tobacco isn’t getting any cheaper ... m-maa, I’m cutting down to 2 a day, so it’s an improvement?

“... Narumi ... you ... how can you say such a line so easily? Haaa... why are you so handsome, gentle to girls, and confident? If you’d quit smoking, stop gaming so much, and lose those ridiculous boobs, you’d be the perfect ikemen!”

“Nonono, then I’d be a completely different person, yeah?”

“Then two out of three! Stop being an otaku and get a sex-change, then be my boyfriend!”

“So why the most difficult ones!? And I’m not an otaku, I’m just a gamer!”

Oh geez, she’s even more worked up than usual after this break up. I guess the guy did text her the day before their anniversary plans, saying, “I don’t want to waste anymore money on this relationship because it’s not going anywhere, so we’re breaking up.”

By the way, ‘it’s not going anywhere’ is his code for we haven’t gone all the way yet. Even though I know they’ve done some fooling around... and even though she was holding out because she wanted to be sure she wasn’t dating yet another guy who’s just in it for the sex.

Yeah, I know. Irony.

Also, he hated me and yelled at Chie every time she hung out with me without telling him. Dude, it’s way uncool to be jealous of your girlfriend’s FEMALE childhood friend.

“Well, Chie, it’s not everyday that a guy breaks up with you and leaves over ¥55,000 worth of stuff as a consolation prize. Since he doesn’t want them back, you should sell them and try out OriginStory with me.”

“Yeah, I know, that’s the only redeeming part of this whole ... waitaminute Narumi, have you been surfing your phone looking at that game this entire time?”

“Of course not. This is Chie’s time to vent, right? I wouldn’t do something so rude.”

“Then what’s that?!”

What awful timing. Chie pointed right at my phone, which showed the OriginStory the VRMMO website. And by bad timing, I mean, little brother, wtf are you doing in the middle of class?

“It’s Toru. He just sent me this link. I thought it was going to be something important at first ... well.”

I hold it up so Chie can see.

“Ah, it’s really a text from Toru-kun. Isn’t he in school right now?”

“I won’t be surprised if he gets his phone confiscated. If it happens, I’m going to text his phone and tell the teacher to keep it for a few days, heh.”

“Mou, Narumi, you’re always picking on Toru-kun.”

“Fufufu. By the way, I was being serious about you playing the game, though?”

“Even though you know I’m trying to cut down on games and light novels, how mean! I’m not going to do something that reeks of otakuness like joining a VRMMO game on the day it starts!”

For some reason, she thinks guys worth dating won’t want an otaku for a girlfriend. And of course she doesn’t want to date an otaku.

I won’t say I understand her reasoning behind it but, well, I think everyone has the right to decide for themselves who they want to be associated with. Though it seems to be very stressful to be as particular as she is.

So she won’t play, huh...

However, I’m not Chie’s childhood friend for nothing.

“... It’s too bad... even though I thought the armor designs were pretty good in this game. See, look, I thought this one would look really good on Chie. Right? And look, they made it so crafters can change the appearances this much... na? All of those ones just then have the stats for ‘Tusker’s Armor Tier 2’, but they can be customized just with crafting this much.”

“Seriously?!”

Her eyes got really big. See, Chie watches just a little bit of anime, plays just a few games, reads just a few novels ... but secretly, she’s a huge cosplayer. She actually attends a lot of events and everything.

Just change your major to fashion design and go to a technical school already!

“W-well, I’d like to be able to rub it in his face that he can’t get those movies back because I bought gaming equipment with it ... I might even be able to sell it for more than usual for store credit, and use the credit to buy the game...”

“Right?”

“What!? What’s these races?! I thought VRMMOs tried to keep everyone human, like Second Life or a fantasy Sims type of game!”

“Fufufu, OriginStory is about completely becoming part of an entirely different world.”

That’s right, OriginStory’s races are a really ambitious. Human, Elf, Siren, Construct, Beastkin, and the most talked about race everyone’s excited for, Werewolf. That’s right, not a wolf-human-like race. It’s a race that can morph from a human into a half-human half-wolf form.

A morphing avatar; it’s the first for VRMMOs.

“Narumi ... let’s go to the electronics store!”

And shortly after, Chie got started playing OriginStory without me ... Ah, to think I have to wait for that shortie at a time like this!

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Speaking of that shortie ...

“Okay Nee-chan, I’ll see you in game!”

*Pattan!*

The door to my little brother’s room slams shut.

Right after he gets home, without even greeting Mom, he runs up to his room, leaving his shoes a mess and his bag and jacket all strewn down the hall.

Mom stood there, shaking her head.

“... Was there any need for you to wait for him, if the two of you are just going to shut yourselves up in your own rooms?”

“Hahaha ... well in the end he went to school, right? Ah, we’ll eat later, so Mom and Dad should have dinner first.”

“Mou ... The two of you had better remember to eat tonight!”

I close the door to my room, hook my phone to the equipment, sit down, and put the headgear on. Finally ... the adventure begins!

... With a video tutorial.

This ... is not starting out so well.

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Welcome to OriginStory the VRMMO!

Sorry for the sudden video tutorial, but it will be short.

This tutorial was made to point out the differences of OriginStory the VRMMO from conventional VRMMOs in hopes that you will make an avatar you feel comfortable with.

Talents: there are many Talents that you can choose freely according to our leveling system, however there are also many Talents that are acquired through other means. The first of these special Talents will be a Talent unlocked on Origin Story creation, and a second unlocked by finishing your unique Origin Story instance. Through exploration, completing certain tasks, etc, many other Talents can be found throughout the world of Azuria.

Origin Story: from your race, your first selected Skills, and a series of questions, your own unique Origin Story will be calculated. In order to prevent exploiting, after hitting “create”, you will not be able to return and re-do the question part of the character creation. This story will affect the Favour you have with certain NPCs and towns, as well as unlocking unique quest-lines and Skills.

Thank you for your patience, and once again, welcome to OriginStory the VRMMO.

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Ah, I see. They don’t want people to randomly make their Origin Story and then get stuck with an avatar they hate, only to have to redo it all.

Since you can only have 1 avatar per account, and each account is linked to your phone and retina scan, you can’t just start an alt just in case you don’t like your first avatar. Competitive players would be furious about all the time wasted.

Even though Talents will affect your stats just like Skills in other VRMMO games, it looks like your Origin Story will play just as large of a part.

As usual, you can’t change your gender... well, that’s fine too.

Talents ... my usual starting set of [Axe] because of COURSE I’m going to go for Two-Handed Axe later... I want increased HP ... Ah, it’s called [Bolstered Endurance] here. Let’s see ... since I hate getting attacked by stealth-type PKers or monster ambushes, let’s go with [Sharp Senses].

After all, for the first 5 levels, a solo player has to go for survivability, na...

It’s ok if it takes me a while to level the Talents as long as I don’t die too much. The death penalty is way too harsh in this game. Equipment damage plus 1 hour debuff of 50% stats and reduced Talent ExP gain is too much ... but the devs are making their message clear; try not to die.

For the last one ... should I go with combat, or should I go for something else? ... Let’s go with [Scavenge] for my last one. I’m curious how the crafting is set up, so I’ll get started early on gathering materials.

Just 4 Talents? Oh, that’s right, the 5th and 6th will be given after I finish my Origin Story.

I wonder what they will be~!

After selecting my Talents, inputting my race, and adjusting my appearance, it’s finally time for the questions for the Origin Story.

Um ... Despite their warning, they still have “random” as an option for all of these questions...

At birth, you were:

□ normal

□ one with a great destiny

□ the heir to a wealthy family

□ in the slums

□ random

Too much chuuni, normal please.

How did you acquire your abilities?

□ training

□ through the gods

□ at birth

□ out of necessity

□ random

Too much chuuni, training please.

Let’s see...

Where does your power come from?

□ Divine

□ Darkness

□ Arcane Magic

□ Nature

□ Pain

□ Myself

□ Society

□ The Ether

□ random

Hm? Mysel ... wait. If I say Arcane Magic, could I get something like a Talent that lets my set my axe on fire to attack enemies with? Because that would be pretty cool. Theeeeeen Arca ... no, wait. That’s not a 100% sure thing. If I say Pain, would it basically be like making a Berserker? Hm...

Other than Divine, Evil, and Society, I don’t really care ... Let’s at least de-select Arcane Magic for now and come back later – Whoa. Instead of going away, the filled-in button turned into an “x”. What does that mean?

Let’s use the tooltip prompt.

This mark indicates that you have disabled this option from being chosen with “random.”

Oooh! I see now. So let’s mark Divine, Evil, and Society as disabled ...

Good. I’m glad they made it so people like me who aren’t too particular about the roleplay can coast through these questions.

And so I continued answering the questions until I reached the end.

That I got tired of it and just started answering “random” to all of them ... The devs must have foreseen that and put that video tutorial in first to try to make us pay attention all the way through.

My bad. It didn’t work.

Lastly, it’s name. Which is of course Naruesin. There’s a nickname option too... then that will be Naru.

Why such a weird name? Of course there’s a profound reason.

Which is that it’s NEVER taken.

Sure, if the name you want is taken, there’s always the option of making up a random name and making your nickname the name you actually want ... well, it’s inconvenient for people searching for you through the game’s social listings, so I made up a name that sounded kind of fantasy-like, and it’s a weird name so it’s always available on any game I play.

If people from my friendslist from other games are playing here, they’ll know it’s me immediately.

Alright! Last check on Talents, and create!

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EXTRA:

The rest of Narumi’s answers:

On a scale from 1(Completely Physical) to 10(Completely Magical), how important is Physical Abilities to Magical Abilities to you?

3

What is the company you keep like?

Prefer to be alone

What do you prefer to do?

Random

(Enabled: explore, hunt, quest; Disabled: craft, pvp, raid, socialize)

Are you experienced with battle?

Random

(Enabled: I seek out battles, only with hunting, been on the battlefield; Disabled: not at all, only through training, only assassinations)

Did you undergo a life-changing experience?

Random

(Enabled (all): yes(horrific), yes(for good), yes(for evil), no)

What setting do you prefer?

Random (Enabled (all): Big city, small village, backstreets, forest, wilderness, mountains, ocean, caves)

Was there someone you relied on?

Random (Enabled (all): no, family, ancestors, a teacher, a benefactor, a god)

How were you treated in your childhood?

Random (Enabled (all): respected, hated, normal, idolized, trained hard, as a weirdo)